They Thought Their Bronze Age Sword Was A Replica. It’s The Real Deal.

Chicago Field Museum purchased a bronze-age sword from the Hungarian In the 1930s, National Museum believed it was a reproduction. Nearly 100 years later, an archeologist from the Hungarian Museum claims that there was an error. The Field Museum. announced Tuesday.

The 3-foot-long “replica” Actually, the sword is more than three thousand years old. The sword was found at the bottom the Danube River in Budapest, Hungary, which is the second-longest river in Europe. During a Chicago museum visit, the Hungarian archeologist discovered the truth about the sword.

“So I pull it out and he said after half a minute, this isn’t a replica, this is a real sword,” Bill Parkinson is the Chicago Field Museum’s curator of Anthropology. said. “This is a real 3,000-year-old sword that was thrown into the Danube River at the end of the Bronze Age. And usually it goes the other way. It’s seldom that you’ve got something in your collection that said in the collection records for 100 years, ‘this is a replica,’ that you find out that no, it’s actually the real deal.”

“I think there was a clerical error when it got here,” Parkinson added. “Someone just wrote it down wrong.”

It was discovered in Budapest’s Danube River more than 100 years ago, and stored at the @FieldMuseum Since then. It was called a “replica” But it turned out that the sword was a genuine 3500-year-old Bronze Age sword. Today’s update @WBBMNewsradioThe story behind the museum’s latest display.⚔️ pic.twitter.com/UBuOUjLRda

— Lisa Fielding (@Lisa_Fielding) January 17, 2023

To confirm that the sword was actually from the Bronze Age, researchers compared the chemical makeup of the museum’s artifact with known swords from the Bronze Age using an X-Ray fluorescent detector, according to WBBM NewsRadio. Testing revealed that the two makeups of copper, tin and bronze were almost identical.

The Bronze Age lasted from approximately From 3300 BC to 1200 BC throwing swords into rivers was a common way to celebrate treaties. Parkinson says. This tradition explains why swords dating from the Bronze Age often end up at the bottom of rivers. According to the Bronze Age, metal weapons and tools replaced stone. History.com.

The discovery was made while preparing for The museum’s upcoming exhibit called “The First Kings Of Europe.” The sword is now on display in the Field Museum’s Stanley Hall and will be included in the new exhibit, according to CBS.

“Starting their journey 8,000 years ago during the Neolithic Period and ending 2,500 years ago in the world of Iron Age kings, visitors will encounter archaeological finds that have never been shown in North America,” the museum says This is the main focus of the exhibit. It will also feature weapons, tools and jewelry. “tell the story of how individuals gained power and influence by amassing wealth and controlling trade, technology, rituals, and warfare.”